RFI Communications & Security Systems Selects ExaGrid for Data Backup and Deduplication

RFI Communications & Security Systems Selects ExaGrid for Data Backup and Deduplication

Facing Forklift Upgrade of Data Domain System, Growing IT Safety Integrator Adds Scalability, Data Retention and Faster Backup with ExaGrid

  • RFI Communications & Security Systems has selected ExaGrid over an existing Data Domain system to retain more data and greatly enhance backup storage capabilities.
  • With ExaGrid, RFI has achieved a 66 percent reduction in its backup window,  from 24 hours to 8 hours, and data retention has increased from 30 days to 6 months.

Westborough, Mass. – June 14, 2012 — ExaGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced that RFI Communications & Security Systems (RFI), a security multi-system integrator, selected ExaGrid to provide scalable multi-site backup and deduplication across the company’s four West Coast regional offices.

Prior to ExaGrid, RFI backed up its data using a Data Domain system, which had reached its processing and storage capacity. In a fixed controller architecture, such as EMC Data Domain, the system scales by adding only disk shelves to the front-end controller. In order to handle RFI’s expanding backup requirements, the company faced a choice of either purchasing a whole new Data Domain system in a costly “forklift upgrade,” or considering other solutions that offered seamless, cost-effective scalability.

With new security monitoring data accumulating 24 hours a day, RFI needed a solution that increased its data retention. In addition, the company wanted the ability to add a second system offsite for data replication.

After a thorough review, RFI selected ExaGrid for the scalability of the GRID-based technology. Since implementing the ExaGrid system, backups of RFI’s main file server have been reduced by 2/3—from 24 hours with the previous system down to just 8 hours.  Restore times are faster with ExaGrid because the last full backup is stored in a high-speed landing zone. In addition, the ExaGrid system delivers an average deduplication ratio of 63:1 at RFI, which enables RFI to maximize retention. They can now store six months of data on the ExaGrid system instead of the 30 days they were limited to with the Data Domain system.

Supporting Quotes

  • Frank Jennings, Network Administrator for RFI: “Unlike the Data Domain system, ExaGrid’s solution gives us the ability to easily scale out the system up as our data grows.  We liked the fact that the ExaGrid holds our most current data in a complete form for faster recovery. With the Data Domain system, the data was deduplicated immediately and our backups and restores took longer. The ExaGrid system is extremely scalable and flexible, and it’s a solution that should serve us well into the future, including the addition of a second system offsite for data replication.”
  • Marc Crespi, VP of Product Management for ExaGrid: “RFI is a prime example of how organizations experiencing rapid data growth can use ExaGrid’s GRID architecture to their advantage. With the only true scalable architecture, RFI is able to add increased capacity to handle more data at the both the primary site and secondary replication site. Despite being previously faced with a forklift upgrade, the RFI team can rest easy knowing that our system allows them to grow seamlessly and avoid having to deal with the Grow-Break-Replace cycle of the fixed controller architecture.”

About ExaGrid’s Technology:
The ExaGrid system is a plug-and-play disk backup appliance that works with existing backup applications and enables faster and more reliable backups and restores. Customers report that backup time is reduced by 30 to 90 percent over traditional tape backup. ExaGrid’s patented zone-level data deduplication technology and most recent backup compression reduces the amount of disk space needed by a range of 10:1 to as high as 50:1 or more, resulting in a cost comparable to traditional tape-based backup.

About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimized for performance, scalability and price. The combination of post-process deduplication, most recent backup cache, and GRID scalability enables IT departments to achieve the shortest backup window and the fastest, most reliable restores and disaster recovery without backup window expansion or forklift upgrades as data grows. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 4,200 systems installed, more than 1,300 customers, and over 290 published customer success stories.

For more information, contact ExaGrid at 800-868-6985 or visit www.exagrid.com.  Visit “ExaGrid’s Eye on Deduplication” blog: http://blog.exagrid.com/.

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ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.